Roy Lichtenstein's Multifaceted Practice Explored at Mudec Milan

A major exhibition at the Mudec in Milan, curated by Gianni Mercurio, challenges the reductive view of Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) as merely a comic-strip artist. The show presents 100 works—including prints, sculptures, tapestries, and editions from European and American museums and private collections—organized into eight sections that reveal the breadth of his practice. Lichtenstein revisited Native American art through an avant-garde lens in the American Indian Theme series and experimented beyond the canvas with works like the painted and patinated bronze Profile Head (1988). The section 'Storia e Vernacoli' reinterprets art history from the Middle Ages to Picasso, Klee, Ernst, and Leutze. In 'Oggetti,' he critiques contemporary society's emotional numbness by flattening color and maximizing Ben-Day dots and pointillism. The 'Mirrors' series presents mirrors as non-objects that lose their reflective function, becoming abstract. 'Interiors' features self-quotations. 'Action Comics' highlights his brief use of comic imagery, prioritizing form over narrative, contrasting female sentimentalism with male war and violence. 'Figura Femminile' traces the evolution of women from happy housewives to feminist icons to 1990s nudes. In 'Paesaggi,' Lichtenstein used rowlux, a lenticular plastic evoking Ben-Day dots and movement. 'Astrazione' explores abstraction parodistically, while 'Maestri del Novecento' deconstructs avant-gardes, anticipating postmodernism.